Is the tide finally turning on AIDS/HIV?

Health News

A new study claims that the AIDS virus may be evolving into a less infections and less deadly form, while a different report suggests that more people are getting treated for AIDS than becoming infected with HIV for the first time in 30 years. So not only are there fewer new infections –according to the latter – but also “anyone who is newly infected now with HIV (in Botswana) is less likely to suffer disease than if they had been infected 20 or 30 years ago,” according to research immunologist with the University of Oxford in England and co-author of the former Philip Goulder. “If this process continues, HIV will cause less and less disease.”

Goulder explained that while the AIDS virus may be more likely to outsmart the immune system, this paradoxically results in the host getting less sick. “One might intuitively imagine that the most successful viruses are the ones that cause maximum disease and kill their hosts most rapidly,” he said. “However, this is not necessarily the case, since if the hosts die quickly, the chances of the virus being transmitted reduce very rapidly. So, in fact, the most successful pathogens tend to be the ones that have evolved over time to cause very little disease.” In evolution, you either adapt or perish, and though AIDS seems to be adapting well, this “appears to be beneficial in that there is a cost to HIV from this process of adaptation,” Goulder said. “The cost is that HIV replicates less efficiently than before.”

This discovery is not necessarily universal, though. “These findings are most likely to apply to Botswana and sub-Saharan Africa, where the global epidemic is concentrated,” Goulder said, admitting that the virus could be evolving differently in places like the United States and other countries. Nevertheless, Goulder called the study – published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday – “good news.” Moreover, research professor with the Institute for AIDS Research in Barcelona, Spain Christian Brander called it “outstanding.” The researchers also remarked how drugs and treatments have contributed to reduce the disease’s virulence.

Speaking of which, advocacy group ONE proclaimed that the number of people newly added to AIDS treatment rose from 1.6 million in 2012 to 2.3 million in 2013, while the number of new HIV infections dropped from 2.2 million to 2.1 million in the same span. The report, released on Monday, said the world is reaching a “tipping point” and the “beginning of the end of AIDS.” Or at least the end of the beginning. “Despite the good news, we should not take a victory lap yet,” director of Global Health Policy at ONE and report author Erin Hohlfelder said. “We’ve passed the tipping point in the AIDS fight at the global level, but not all countries are there yet, and the gains made can easily stall or unravel.”

The report outlined three obstacles that can undermine the fight against AIDS; lack of funding (there is a yearly deficit of $3 billion, many African countries fail to meet health spending promises, and there are only three main international donors: the U.S., the U.K., and France), hard-to-reach and stigmatized groups (HIV/AIDS is concentrated among intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men, and sex workers), and the ease with which progress made can be undone. For example, Ghana reached a tipping point in 2012 only to relapse in 2013. Or like H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

Related Read:

Is HIV becoming less contagious?

AIDS pandemic at ‘beginning of the end’, say campaigners.

The post Is the tide finally turning on AIDS/HIV? appeared first on Health-News.com.